[Bleeding complications of anticoagulant therapy].

Anticoagulant therapy is one of the most common forms of medical intervention. It is the mainstay of prevention and treatment of thrombotic events. Omission of adequate anticoagulant prophylaxis at least for moderate-risk and high-risk patients is a widely recognized medical error. Bleeding is one of the most feared complications of anticoagulant therapy, and is a risk of all anticoagulants. Whereas unfractionated heparin and warfarin, the oldest and most widely used anticoagulants, have specific antidotes for their anticoagulant effect, many of the newer agents (direct and indirect inhibitors of coagulation factors Xa and/or IIa) do not have specific antidotes to reverse their actions. The use of novel anticoagulants is further complicated by a lack of easily available laboratory tests to measure their levels and thereby optimize their benefit and safety in clinical practice. In this review, we evaluate the risk of bleeding associated with current anticoagulants, review the data available on current and experimental agents used for the reversal of anticoagulation, and provide recommendations for the management of major bleeding associated with anticoagulant therapy and for the management of asymptomatic overdosing of the anticoagulants.